Scraping machine



Dec. 15

E. M. NICHOLS SCRAPING MACHINE Filed June 2. 1924 JmuE" 6 1 1.) Gum Wu;-

4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 15,1925- E. M. NICHOLS SCRAPING MACHINE Filed June 1924 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 8 .8 (1H0: nu;

Dec. 15, 1925. 1,565,752

E. M. NICHOLS SCRAPING MACHINE Filed June 2, 1924 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 L mm Q I N WITNESLS INVENTOR W5, Eu efieMiv'ichals, fi/ W 7 AT ORNEY Patented Dec. 15, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EUGENE M. NICHOLS, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

. SCRAPING MACHINE. I

, Application flled J'une 2,

Ton whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, ,EUGENE M. NICHOLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia sand, gravel, coal, etc., from a wide area,

and more particularly for scraping foul matter from filter beds in water purifiers.

In existing machines of this class, the scraping element is a screw conveyor. The

usual method of-scraping the foul matter from the filter bed is bymounting a right and left handed screw in front of the machine, rotating it so I that the foul matter is heaped in front of the screw and moving the scraped matter toward the center'of'the" machine. The objections to thisinethod are that the matter in front of the rotating screw iseither carried over onto the scraped surface, or is left behind on the scraped surface; that itis not capable of scraping except at limited depths, and that an intermediate conveyor is required to move the collected matter to the water ejector which conveys it into'the sand separator. The objects of my invention are to provide a machine of simple and durable construction which will collect the foul matter from the surface; which will leave the scraped surface clean and free of foul matter; which may be adjusted to efficiently scrapeto any'desired depth; and which will convey the foul matter directly to the ejector box and 1 dispense with the intermediate conveyor. These objects, and other advantageous ends which. will be described hereinafter, I attain in the following manner, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a plan View of a scraping machine constructed in accordance with my invention, certain of the parts being omitted and others partly broken away,

Figure 2 a front View of the machine shown in Figure 1,

1924. Serial No. 717,317.

Figure 3 a side view of the machine shown in Figure 2, looking from the right,

Figure 4 an enlarged fragmentary section on line 44; of Figure 2,

vFigure 5 a section on line 55 of Figure Figure 7 6 a section on line 66 of Figure 1,

Figure 3, and; I

Figure 8 a section 011 line 8-8 of Figure 3.

Briefly the machine consistsof a frame 1, a conveyor screw 2 mounted in front of the frame; a scraping plate or apron 3 carried by the frame in rear of-the screw; caterpillar propelling meanshaving one .end pivoted to the rear of the frame and the other end connected torthe frame at 5 for vertically adjusting screw 2 and apron relatively to the. propelling means; mechanism for rotating the screw to throw the loosened foul matter toward apron 3; mechanism for driving the propelling means, and a water ejector 6 mounted adjacent an opening in apron 3 for removing the col- 'lected foul matter.

Frame 1 may be of channel iron construction. It has a pair of depending supports 7 for carrying screw 2. The screw has a right handed part 8 and a left handed part 9 meeting substantially in the center of the screw as shown at 10. Scraping plate or apron 3 is carried by the frame in rear of screw 2 and has its lower edge ll below andprojecting forward under screw 2 and its upper edge 12 above the screw. An opening 13 in the apron is disposed adjacent the meeting point of the right and left handed screw parts to allow the matter accumulated at this pointto be moved by the screw through opening13 into a recepa section on line 77 of Figure tacle 14 mounted adjacent the opening. A

water inlet conduit 15 leads into the bottom of the receptacle and an outlet conduit 16 is disposed above and in line with the inlet conduit and leads upward from the receptacle. Water passing upward from the iin let' conduit into the outlet conduit sucks the sand from the receptacle into the outlet coir duit and carries it into a separator 17 which separates the sand from foul matter and discharges the clean sand onto the bed. I preferably provide perforated pipes 18, in the receptacle for flushing the collected matter toward the inlet conduit 15.

Caterpillar propelling means 4, mounted at opposite sides of the frame, havetheir rear end pivoted to the rear of theframe at 19 and their front end connected between the front and rear of the frame for vertical adjustment as shown at 5. This adjusting mechanism, preferably consists of arack 20 rigidly connected with the caterpillar propelling means 4 and meshing with a gear 21' rotatable in frame 1. A manipulating lever 2 is connected with gear 21- and' carries a pawl 23 adapted toengage ratchet teeth 2r on a segment fixed tofram'e 1. A movement of lever 22 in, either direction will cause gear 21 to travel up or down rack 20 and move frame 1 and screw 2 up or down relatively to the caterpillar propelling means.

The mechanism for rotating screw 2' and moving the caterpillar propelling means'4 preferably consists of a 'shaft 25' suitably geared to a motor 26. This shaft-rotates screw 2 through a train of 'gears 27 and operates the caterpillars through a friction wheel and dislr'connection 28,. shaft 29, worm andwor-m wheel geiari'ng30, shaft 31 and gears 31 thereon, speedjcha'nge gears 32 adapted to be 'moved into mesh with gears 31 and shaft 33" which is connected with each of the caterpillars through a train of gears 3a The controlling means for the caterpillar propelling means may be the mechanism 35 for disconnecting either caterpillar from shaft 33, the mechanism 36 for changing the speed of shaft 33, 'and'the mechanism 37 for reversing and varying the speed of shaft 29 by changing the position of the frictional connection 28, and the mechanism 38 for disconnecting connection 28 by shifting shaft 29 longitudinally To use the machine for scraping the foul matter from the surface'of filter beds, screw 2 and apron 3 are adjustedv vertically relatively to propelling means 4 bythe adjustable connection 5 so as to scrape to the desired depth. Motor 26 is started to rotate the screw conveyor and the controlling mechanism manipulated to give the frame the proper movement forwardly. As the frame moves forward, the screw conveyor loosens up the foul material in frontofthe machine and conveys it toward the longitudinal center of the machinef "lhe 'scraper plate cuts a thin film of the material from the part of the bed over which theconveyor has passed, and leaves an even and clean surface. It also serves as a barrier'to prevent any of'the collected foul matter-from being carried over and deposited upon the scraped surface, and as a trough in which screw 2 rotates and moves the foul matter toward opening 13. As the foul matter is collected at opening 13 it is forced by the meeting part of the right and left handed screws through the opening into receptacle 14 as shown in Figures 4 and 6. A jet of Water passing at high velocity across the gap between the inlet and outlet conduits 15 and 16, sucks the collected matter from the receptacle into outlet conduit 16 and carries it into separator 17 in which the sand is cleansed from foul matter and discharged onto the bed. It will be seen that no foul matter will remain on the surface of the bed; that no intermediate conveyor is necessary for carrying the collected matter into receptacle 14 or the water ejector; that the machine is capable scraping the surface of filter beds to any desired depth and of efficiently collecting the foul matter, and that the machine may quickly adjusted to scrape to any desired depth.

I preferably space apron 3 fron 'screw 2 a suflicient distance so that a sand trough may be formed in the apron for guiding the foul matter as it is inoved'by the screw. This sand trough serves as a protecting coating'on the surface of the apron to reduce wear and prevent jamming, between the screw and the apron, of stones or other solid objects. I

The lower edge of the apron is prefers ably made of tough wearing steel while the, upper part of the apron may be made of mild'steel.

While I have described my invention as taking a particulan form, it will be understood that the various partsmay be changed without departing from the spirit thereof, and hence I do not limit myselfto the precise construction set forth, but. consider that I am at libertyto make such, changes and" alterations as fairly come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claimas new and desire to secure by Letters Patent l. A scraping machine including a screw conveyor having right and left hand threads adapted to collect foul matter at a discharge point, a plate mounted in the rear, of the conveyor adapted to prevent overflow of the collected matter onto the cleaned surface, a receptacle in the rear of the plate adapted to receive the collected matter, the plate having an opening to permit passage of the collected matter into the receptacle, means for propelling the machine and means for actuating the conveyor.

2. A scraping machine including a screw conveyor having rightand left hand threads adapted to collect foul matter at a discharge point, a plate mounted in the rearof-the conveyor adapted to preventoverflowofthe collected matter onto the cleaned surface, a

receptacle in the rear of the plate adapted to receive the collected matter, the plate having an opening to permit passage of the collected matter into the receptacle, means for removing the matter from the receptacle, means for propelling the machine and means for actuating the conveyor.

3. A scraping machine including a screw conveyor having ri ht and left hand threads adapted to collect oul matter at a discharge point, a plate mounted in the rear of the conveyor adapted to prevent overflow of the collected matter onto the cleaned surface, a receptacle in the rear of the plate adapted to receive the collected matter, the plate having an opening to permit passage of the collected matter into the receptacle, fluid conduits leading into and from the receptacle for removing the matter from the receptacle, means for propelling the machine and means for actuating the conveyor.

4. A scraping machine including a screw conveyor having right and left hand threads adapted to collect foul'matter at a discharge point, a plate mounted in the rear of the conveyor adapted to prevent overflow of the collected matter onto the cleaned surface, a receptacle in the rear of the plate adapted to receive the collected matter, the plate having an opening to permit passage of the collected matter into the receptacle, means for propelling the machine; means for vertically adjusting the conveyor and the plate relatively to the propelling means, and means for actuating the conveyor.

5. A scraping machine including a frame, a screw conveyor having right and left hand threads adapted to collect foul matter at a discharge point, a plate mounted in the rear of the conveyor adapted to prevent overflow of the collected matter onto the cleaned surface, a receptacle in the rear of the plate adapted to receive the collected matter, the plate having an opening to permit passage of the collected matter into the receptacle, means for propelling the machine, a rack carried by the propelling means, a gear rotatably mounted in the frame, a ratchet toothed segment carried by the frame, a lever connected with the gear, a pawl carried by the lever adapted to engage the ratchet teeth whereby movement of the lever will cause the gear to travel up or down the rack and thereby raise or lower the frame relatively to the propelling means, and means for actuating the conveyor.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

EUGENE M. NICHOLS. 

